SecureData, a member of the JSE-listed ERP.com Group and the southern African enterprise partner for eEye Digital Security, today announced that the latter's network security and vulnerability management software solutions proactively protects users from the potential exploitation of a zero-day flaw in Microsoft Windows with its Blink Endpoint Vulnerability Prevention solution. This allows IT departments to deploy software patches according to regularly scheduled maintenance cycles.
eEye's research team has confirmed that Blink protects against the critical Windows Metafile flaw without Microsoft's recently released patch and without requiring invasive firewalling, which could limit system functionality. Blink does not require shutting down services or applications as a means of protection, thus allowing businesses to continue to function normally. The result is 100% protection, with zero downtime or impact to operations.
This serious zero-day vulnerability affects all versions of Microsoft Windows operating systems. Exploitable via Web surfing, e-mail and instant messaging, several versions of the exploit are already in the wild and are actively being used maliciously.
"This WMF vulnerability - and its dozens of variants - is a great example of a critical zero-day attack that signature-based intrusion prevention solutions cannot protect against," commented Marc Maiffret, eEye's co-founder and chief hacking officer. "Although Microsoft has recently released a patch to address this critical flaw, IT still has to deal with the massive disruption and resource drain required in order to immediately address this issue. This is just another reason why we continue to encourage network administrators to deploy Blink, or other non-signature-based HIPS solutions to proactively protect their networks. By doing so, they can protect their infrastructure against new classes of WMF flaws while saving their patching resources for monthly maintenance cycles."
Unlike signature-based solutions, such as anti-virus or behaviour-based solutions, current Blink customers aren't required to do anything to realise protection from this flaw, as no updates or policy changes are required.
Over the last five years, eEye has been recognised by industry experts as the pre-eminent organisation in the discovery of the most critical vulnerabilities in various platforms and applications, including the vulnerabilities subsequently leveraged by the Sasser, Witty, Code Red and Sapphire worms, as well as the Microsoft ASN vulnerability and hundreds of other important discoveries. This expertise gives eEye a distinct advantage in designing services and software solutions for the assessment, remediation and prevention of vulnerabilities and the attacks that leverage them.
Blink Endpoint Vulnerability Prevention
Designed to be implemented on individual assets such as servers, PCs and laptops, Blink is the first endpoint product to combine multiple layers of security technologies to protect enterprises from zero-day attacks that leverage yet unknown vulnerabilities within enterprise networks.
This comprehensive security solution allows organisations to defer patching vulnerable machines until regularly scheduled maintenance cycles, thereby saving millions of dollars in business disruption and the associated IT resource drain caused by 'panic' patching.
Additionally, Blink eliminates the problem of so-called "socially engineered" security threats in which hackers trick individuals into downloading malware or otherwise making their own machines vulnerable to attack. As a result, Blink uniquely protects assets from vulnerabilities, as opposed to only thwarting attacks.
eEye's integrated family of vulnerability management solutions helps IT and security professionals confidently safeguard their valuable digital assets. Working in conjunction with popular tools such as firewalls and intrusion detection systems, eEye's product portfolio also includes Retina Network Security Scanner, REM Security Management Console, Iris Network Traffic Analyzer and SecureIIS Web Server Protection.
For further information, please contact Willem Barnard at telephone (011) 257 8600; fax (011) 257 8699; e-mail willemb@securedata.co.za.
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eEye Digital Security is a leading developer of network security software, and the foremost contributor to security research and education. eEye's award-winning software products provide a complete vulnerability management solution that addresses the full lifecycle of security threats: before, during and after attacks.
eEye protects the networks and digital assets of more than 8 400 corporate and government deployments worldwide, including Avon, Citigroup, Continental Airlines, The US Department of Defence, Dow Jones, Prudential, University of Miami, Viacom, Vodafone, Warner Music and Wyeth. Founded in 1998, eEye Digital Security is a privately held, venture-backed firm with headquarters in Orange County, California. For more information, please go to www.eEye.com.
SecureData
SecureData, an ERP.com company, is Africa's premier IT security solution provider. SecureData's solutions incorporate anti-virus and content security, network security, intrusion prevention software and network asset management. SecureData's comprehensive "Managed Security Services" include design, audit, implementation, vulnerability assessment, outsourcing and hosting.
SecureData distributes, sells and supports category leading IT security products to the public, corporate and SME sectors throughout Africa as well as products and services to the SOHO and consumer markets through partnerships with ISPs. As well as being the sole distributor in Sub-Saharan Africa for Trend Micro, SecureData is the African distributor for US-based TippingPoint Technologies and the southern African distributor for US-based Application Security, eEye, Rocket Software, RSA Security, St Bernard and Websense. For more information, visit SecureData at www.securedata.co.za.
ERP.com
ERP.com is a JSE-listed company focused on the implementation, integration and management of enterprise applications in an e-business environment. For more information, visit ERP.com at www.erpcom.co.za.
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